CHAPTER ESSENTIALS
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Understand Main Events in Movies’ Early History
- Major advances in film technology took place in the late nineteenth century when Muybridge created a method for making images move while Eastman developed the first roll film, capable of capturing moving images and projecting them. Soon after, Goodwin improved roll film by using strips of transparent, pliable material called celluloid, enabling a strip of film to move through a camera and be photographed in rapid succession, producing a series of pictures (pp. 195–196).
- Film moved to the entrepreneurial stage when inventors such as Thomas Edison created an early movie camera—the kinetograph, a single-person viewing system, the kinetoscope, and the vitascope, a new large-screen system through which longer film strips could be projected without interruption. During this time, others dabbled in film development, and movies first began to be seen by the public—although they consisted of movement recorded by a single continuous camera shot (pp. 196–198).
- Movies advanced to the mass medium stage in the late 1890s with the introduction of narrative films—movies that tell stories through a series of actions, offering audiences a realistic movie experience. In addition, the arrival of nickelodeons, a type of movie theater whose name combines the admission price with the Greek word for “theater,” made movies accessible to everyone—from struggling immigrants to affluent people (pp. 198–199).
Trace the Evolution of the Hollywood Studio System
- By the 1910s movies had become a major industry due to the creation of monopolies and entrepreneurs jockeying for power over the “three pillars” of the film business: production (making movies), distribution (getting films into theaters), and exhibition (playing films in theaters). Controlling these three parts achieved vertical integration. The resulting concentration of power gave rise to the studio system, by which creative talent was firmly controlled by studios. Five film studios made up this new film oligopoly, where industry is dominated by just a few firms (pp. 199–200).
- By monopolizing patents, inventor Thomas Edison tried to dominate the business by forming in 1908 the Motion Picture Patents Company, known as the Trust, to the dismay of many early film producers. Edison’s monopoly was later broken up, but movie studios emerged and gained power through a variety of tactics, such as block booking, or pressuring theater operators to accept marginal films with no stars in order to get access to films with the most popular stars and drawing in members of the middle and upper class with movie palaces and later city dwellers with multiplexes and modern megaplexes (pp. 200–203).
Discuss the Development of Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age
- Once the Hollywood studio system established itself as a profitable business, it ushered in a Golden Age beginning in 1915 whereby distinct moviemaking styles were developed and standards were set, including narrative techniques like innovative use of camera angles to tell stories; the introduction of sound pictures (talkies) and later sound-film newsreels; a Hollywood narrative style with recognizable plots and character types; movie genres, or categories in which conventions regarding characters, scenes, and themes recur in combination; and the rise in status of the movie director, who developed a particular cinematic style or specific interest in a topic (pp. 203–207).
- Outside the Hollywood system, many alternatives to the feature-length film exist, such as foreign films, documentaries (sometimes developed with portable cameras in a style known as cinema verité), and independent films, or indies (pp. 207, 210).
Explain the Transformation of the Studio System
- Beginning in the 1940s, a number of political, social, and cultural forces reshaped how people viewed movies, forcing the Hollywood studio system to adapt. For example, the Paramount Decision in 1948—a court ruling forcing the big, vertically integrated studios to break up their ownership of the three pillars—and the migration of Americans from the cities to the suburbs (and away from movies to new luxuries) changed the way movies were consumed (pp. 210–211).
- While many people thought the introduction of television and home entertainment (such as the rise of cable and the videocassette) would be the end of film, studios used several strategies to compete, such as covering more serious themes in movies and using technological improvements like “Technicolor” in film while also capitalizing on video/DVD sales and rentals (pp. 211–213).
Analyze the Economics of the Movie Business
- In the commercial film business, players such as the Synergy—the promotion and sale of a product through various subsidiaries of a media conglomerate—further drives revenue (pp. 213–215).
- The film industry spends money on production, marketing, advertising and print costs, postproduction fees, distribution, exhibition, and acquisitions. To cut costs, many filmmakers have sought less expensive ways of producing movies with digital video. However, the dawn of the Digital Age presents new uncertainties and is forcing studios to rethink their business models (pp. 215–216, 218).
Consider How Movies Function in Our Democratic Society
- Movies act as consensus narratives, popular cultural products that provide us with shared experiences and communicate values, hopes, and dreams (p. 218).
- The continuing power of the movie industry raises questions about movies’ role in society—both internationally and within the United States. Therefore, it’s vital to consume movies with a critical eye (pp. 218–219).